Wahlberg was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, the youngest of nine children,[2] with siblings Arthur, Jim, Paul, Robert, Tracey, Michelle, Debbie (died in 2003 at age 44), and Donnie. Wahlberg’s mother, Alma Elaine (née Donnelly), was a bank clerk and nurse’s aide, and Wahlberg’s father, Donald Edward Wahlberg, was a Teamster who worked as a delivery driver. His parents divorced in 1982.[3] His father was of half Swedish and half Irish ancestry, and his mother is of Irish, English, and French Canadian descent.[4] Maternally, Wahlberg is distantly related to author Nathaniel Hawthorne.[5] Wahlberg had a Roman Catholic[6][7] upbringing and attended Copley Square High School (but never graduated) on Newbury Street in Boston.

Assaults and conviction

Cover of Planet of the Apes (Special Edition)

Wahlberg has been in trouble 20–25 times with the Boston Police Department in his youth. By the age of 13, Wahlberg had developed an addiction to cocaine and other substances.[8][9] At 15, he harassed a group of black school children on a field trip by throwing rocks and shouting racial epithets.[10] When he was 16, Wahlberg approached a middle-aged Vietnamese man on the street and, using a large wooden stick, knocked him unconscious (while calling him „Vietnam fucking shit“). He also attacked another Vietnamese man, leaving him permanently blind in one eye.

For these crimes, Wahlberg was charged with attempted murder, pled guilty to assault, and was sentenced to two years in state prison at Boston’s Deer Island House of Correction, of which he served 45 days.[11][13] In another incident, the 21-year-old Wahlberg fractured the jaw of a neighbor in an unprovoked attack.[14] Commenting in 2006 on his past crimes, Wahlberg has stated: „I did a lot of things that I regret, and I have certainly paid for my mistakes.“ He said the right thing to do would be to try to find the blinded man and make amends, and admitted he has not done so, but added that he was no longer burdened by guilt: „You have to go and ask for forgiveness and it wasn’t until I really started doing good and doing right by other people, as well as myself, that I really started to feel that guilt go away. So I don’t have a problem going to sleep at night. I feel good when I wake up in the morning.“[15]

After landing in prison following this assault, he decided to change his ways. According to Wahlberg, „As soon as I began that life of crime, there was always a voice in my head telling me I was going to end up in jail. Three of my brothers had done time. My sister went to prison so many times I lost count. Finally I was there, locked up with the kind of guys I’d always wanted to be like. Now I’d earned my stripes and I was just like them, and I realized it wasn’t what I wanted at all. I’d ended up in the worst place I could possibly imagine and I never wanted to go back. First of all, I had to learn to stay on the straight and narrow.“ Wahlberg first relied on the guidance of his parish priest to turn his back on crime. He told his street gang that he was leaving them and had „some serious fights“ with them over it. The actor commented in 2009: „I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life and I’ve done bad things, but I never blamed my upbringing for that. I never behaved like a victim so that I would have a convenient reason for victimizing others. Everything I did wrong was my own fault. I was taught the difference between right and wrong at an early age. I take full responsibility.“[16]

Wahlberg began recording as Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, earning a hit with „Good Vibrations“ from the album Music for the People. The record was produced by brother Donnie and later hit No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100, later becoming certified as a platinum single. The second single, „Wildside“, peaked at No. 5 on BillboardsHot Singles Sales chart and at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.[17] It was certified as a gold single. Marky Mark opened for the New Kids on the Block during their last tour. The second Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch LP, You Gotta Believe, was not as successful as the prior, yielding only a minor hit single in the title track. Wahlberg later collaborated with the late reggae/ragga singer Prince Ital Joe on the album Life in the Streets. The project combined rap and ragga vocals with strong eurodance music (as in the singles Happy People, German No. 1 hit United, Life in the Streets, and Babylon) courtesy of Frank Peterson and Alex Christensen as producers.

Advertising career

Wahlberg first displayed his physique in the Good Vibrations music video and most prominently in a series of underwear ads for Calvin Klein shot by Herb Ritts, following it with Calvin Klein television advertisements.[19] Magazine and television promotions would sometimes feature Mark exclusively or accompanied by model Kate Moss. Annie Leibovitz also shot a famous session of Mark Wahlberg in underwear for Vanity Fair‘s annual Hall of Fame issue.[20] He also made a workout video titled The Marky Mark Workout: Form… Focus… Fitness (ISBN 1-55510-910-1).

Music for the People (Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 2012, he launched a line of sports nutrition supplements called „Marked“.[21]

Wahlberg starred in the American football drama, Invincible, based on the true story of bartender Vince Papale. He is also the executive producer of the HBO series Entourage which is loosely based on his experiences in Hollywood. He also appeared as a foul-mouthed Massachusetts State Police detective in Martin Scorsese’s critically acclaimed thriller, The Departed in 2006, which netted him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, and an NSFC Best Supporting Actor award. Wahlberg has confirmed that he was approached to star in a sequel to The Departed, but it is still early in development. The sequel would reportedly revolve around the Staff Sergeant played by Wahlberg.[24]

He starred in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening as Eliot Moore, which premiered in movie theatres on June 13, 2008. The same year, he played the title role in Max Payne, based on a video game of the same name. While promoting Max Payne, Mark became involved in a playful feud with Saturday Night Live‚s Andy Samberg and threatened to „crack that big fucking nose of his“. Samberg had done an impression of Wahlberg in a Saturday Night Live skit titled „Mark Wahlberg Talks To Animals“.[29][30] However, Wahlberg later appeared in a follow-up skit parodying both the original skit, Samberg’s impression of Wahlberg, and his own threats to Samberg.[31][32]

Personal life

Family and relationships

Boston (Photo credit: Joe Shlabotnik)

In the early 1990s, Wahlberg dated former child actress Soleil Moon Frye.[33] Wahlberg and model Rhea Durham have been together since 2001 and were married on August 1, 2009 at the Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills. The couple have four children, Ella Rae (born September 2, 2003), Michael Robert (born March 21, 2006), Brendan Joseph (born September 16, 2008) and Grace Margaret (born January 11, 2010). In a 2011 interview with USA Weekend, Wahlberg stated that he had taken his children to visit his old Dorchester neighborhood, saying „I want them to know that not everyone is as fortunate and how important it is to work hard and give back.“[34]

His father, a US Army veteran of the Korean War, died on February 14, 2008.[35]

Religion

Wahlberg is a committed Roman Catholic,[36] who attends daily Mass, credits his faith and a priest from his childhood for helping him turn his life around, and recognizes the seriousness of his faith.[7]

Charity work

Actively involved in charity, Wahlberg established the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation in May 2001 for the purpose of raising and distributing funds to youth service and enrichment programs.[37]

Wahlberg is also active with The Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women and Children. In an interview, Mark said that it’s important to let the homeless know that people care about them and are working to help the impoverished get back on their feet.[38]

Tattoos

Wahlberg has four tattoos done by various artists including Paul Timman.[40] The tattoos include Sylvester the cat with Tweety Bird in his mouth on his ankle, a design of his initials „MW“ with his surname „Wahlberg“ on his upper right arm, and a Bob Marley tattoo with „One Love“ on his upper left arm.[41] The final tattoo, which Wahlberg holds as his most meaningful, is the rosary tattooed around his neck, with a crucifix and the words „In God I Trust“ resting over his heart.[41] On January 9, 2012 Wahlberg was a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman. He spoke about his tattoos and stated he is in the process of having them removed. Initially he was told it would take 8–10 laser treatments, however he required over 30 treatments and is still in the process of getting them removed. He cited his career and children as the reason for the removal of the tattoos. His first tattoo was as a young teenager and it was of a shamrock. As it was not professionally done, he said the shamrock was not straight and had the Tweety Bird tattoo placed over it after arriving in Los Angeles.

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Wahlberg was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, the youngest of nine children,[2] with siblings Arthur, Jim, Paul, Robert, Tracey, Michelle, Debbie (died in 2003 at age 44), and Donnie. Wahlberg’s mother, Alma Elaine (née Donnelly), was a bank clerk and nurse’s aide, and Wahlberg’s father, Donald Edward Wahlberg, was a Teamster who worked as a delivery driver. His parents divorced in 1982.[3] His father was of half Swedish and half Irish ancestry, and his mother is of Irish, English, and French Canadian descent.[4] Maternally, Wahlberg is distantly related to author Nathaniel Hawthorne.[5] Wahlberg had a Roman Catholic[6][7] upbringing and attended Copley Square High School (but never graduated) on Newbury Street in Boston.